What is Everyone Working On? Volume 2

[bOb shingler]

not much to post. i got 3 of the 5 boxes of my aluminum rods back today with the small ends machined to fit into the pistons, also dropped of my oil pump drives to get machined for roller bearings so the bronze bushing in the block won't grind off the brass drive gear and to have the m/t logo machined off to install the burn-down breathers. he also drilled the 7 grade 8 allen head cap screws that hold the cam gear on for safety wire and lock tighted and torque them down.

[Ciscodog]

7 fasteners for a cam gear?  Damn bOb - you using old space shuttle parts?

[jimmyb]

just got the news that I will have my blower in 2weeks. It has taken about 10 months,so I am ready to see it.

[bOb shingler]

me ready to see too jimmyb.

[instrument]

My newest 69 swinger, I switched out the tires and rims today. Tomorrow, I'm dropping the tank and popping in a clean one. The fuel line will be blown out. After that is said and done I will be replacing the starter.
Guessing, I should be able to get the flooring this weekend, maybe. Alls it will require is some roughing and coating. But, We might be off to camping and River rafting this weekend.

[bOb shingler]

all righty kiddies, today a went down to where i work and got the three boxes of rods i left there overnight in the rain and dried them off  then a fitted the motor plate, the magnesium spacers and magnesuin idler pulley bracket on the motor, so far everything fitting ok but only time will tell.  oh, nice window insrument.

[thebankerstoy]

I'm in the process of buying everything that I need to do the second complete restoration of my 1966 Coronet's interior. (the first was done in 1990) This time I will be going back to a much closer to original factory look and I will be changing the color from black, to the original factory offered Pearl White like in the pictures below. It will not be a weekend project, as I will be restoring everything, including a complete dashboard assembly restoration, along with a complete power window system restoration and a complete restoration of the cars wiring system.

A buddy of mine and I, are also in the process of building an LED lighting system for my sons 72 Dart Swinger's dash cluster that will finally fix a badly designed factory design. After we get the prototype finished and installed and any bugs worked out of this system, I will be sharing much more information with you folks here on B.B.D. and maybe we will be offering this lighting system for sale to any of you guy's and gal's who are interrested in having superior lighting for your dash clusters.  By the way, this LED lighting system will also work on B, E, and C-Body cars if all goes as planned. 

Richard

[guzzimike]

Gonna be retrofitting a 2500-Stall torque converter to our '68 Dart GT daily driver.

[flyboy01]

My last few weeks.

[jacks62440]

Body Work            Getting rid of "Old Fender Flares"

[bOb shingler]

wow you guys sure have talent. today i learned how to use safety wire pliars, what a trip, it's real easy to break the wire fro sure. anyway i managed to get the 7 cam gear bolts wired together but only after several broken wires, 10 of 'em. 

[sr71mopar]

I'm still waiting to hear about the seven cam gear bolts. What are you putting together Bob?

[bOb shingler]

I'm still waiting to hear about the seven cam gear bolts. What are you putting together Bob?

  ahhh the 7 cam bolts! i have a donovan gear drive and the cam gear is a 2 piece unit. the center has the regular 3 bolts and the outside piece with the gears on it have the famous 7  5/16" fine thread bolts holding it to the center piece.  sooooooooo kiddies today was a really eventful day so say the least. i'm installing the hub onto the crank and everything going just fine. it's dang near all the way on an then the installer tool breaks leaving the front part of the tool in the snout of the crank.  so i'ma thinking to myself this isn't really good.  the pipe wrench wouldn't grip it and the super large channel locks won't either, the vice grips nooooo way, so i take matters straight by the horns and head to the fridge for a cool one.  after a heap a thinkin i head back to the fridge and grab another one.  ok more thinking, wathefuque to do now, so i'm looking around in the garage and spy can of blaster, spray the broken pieces down. ok what next? ah a cold chisel and large hammer. whack it a few times and we have success,  them there beers really help i'm telling you all. so now i grab the crank bolt by lthe head and lube her up, no that's another story. i brush moly lube on it and head her home, no that's still the other story. anyway the most torque i can get on the bolt is 220lbs, i need to get at least 350lbs with the moly lube. i'll have to wait untill someone comes on over tomorow to get them to hold the motor steady so it doesn't tip over. 

[Ciscodog]

Wow bOb - that's quite a day! 

Yesterday I started putting the short block together!  Yes!  It's true!  First I realized I didn't have any thread sealer paste, so I had to run to the store to get a tube.   All the clearances checked out, so I laid the crank in.  Hey - where's the two bolts for my seal retainer?   Dug around in the shed and found a couple spares - blasted them clean, we're in business.   So, the crank is in, block is plugged, billet aluminum caps are on, seal retainer is good.  

Today I cleaned a spot off on the work bench and found the two seal retainer bolts I was looking for yesterday     Taped up the pistons and blasted the top of them to prep for the thermal coating.  Went pretty fast, and cleaned the two retainer bolts while I was at it    Then I busted out the Harbor Freight detail gun and sprayed the tops of the pistons  Right now they're in the oven getting baked - good thing my wife is out of town for a few days!    I'll let you know how it goes!  In the meantime, I'm taking bOb's advice and using a cool beverage to help me think about what to do next

[bOb shingler]

fellows yesterday went alot smoother with no crash ups and since i couldn't get any help to torque the balancer/hub bolt i made a brace out of 1/4" x 2" aluminum flat stock to bolt to the engine plate and touching the floor to keep the motor from tipping over. it worked real nice and i was able to get it torqued to 300lbs which i might add is all the butt i could put into the torque wrench. that should be close enough seeing how the threads and washer was lubed with moly. 

[bOb shingler]

well kiddies today was a slightly stressful day having to install the dreaded spiro-locs. seems like the clown nitromikee at hemipartking can't call me back on the wristpin buttons. things went ok with them tiny little buggars excepting that i did get 2 of the rods in the pistons backwards meaning the beveled side of the aluminum rod ended up facing the wrong direction and had to fight with them to get 'em removed.  which brings me back to " i never have to do anything just once". they are alot easier to install by far and almost borders on satisflying to get them to go right in the grove like i knew what i was doing.  so that done it's off to find the oil ring rail support, hmmm where did i put them? oh, that's right, in a old piston box. ok i did finally get all the rings on with no mishaps. if you all never used on of those round tapered pistons installers your missing out on THE easiest way to get them into their homes. way too easy.  any one want a k-d or a band piston installer?  sooooo the short block is together. yee haw

[jet-taz]

body work done wheel tubs in

[Bakaruda]

Looks great, need more pics.

[jet-taz]

her's another one

[Ciscodog]

Finally took some pics of last weeks piston cooking    Also snapped a couple of the painted and smoothed firewall.  It's the wrong color, but you get the idea.  It's going to be a shame to sand off two perfectly good coats of clear to get what I want, but dammit I paid for it! 

[Bakaruda]

Damn bud it looks great with paint.

[448DartGT]

flyboy01 you did a nice job fixing that door striker!

Dave G.

[nothingbutdarts]

flyboy01 you did a nice job fixing that door striker!

Dave G.

 
                 

[moparhead]

Ciscodog...........moparhead here... .... ..did you make your hood braces or did you order them from someone? 
I'll be needing something like those for my son's hood. I'd appreciate your info. Thanks .. ...Doug

[Ciscodog]

About the hood braces - Harwood sells a kit that comes with all the dzus parts, but there weren't enough for what I wanted so I ended up buying more from Moroso.  Go with the Harwood kit if you can because they're anodized and won't rust.

[bOb shingler]

alrighty then, i've been so busy on the motor and didn't think about up dating what the hey i've accomplished. the head studs are in, the heads are on, the rocker gear is in, the valve covers are sand blasted and the breather pipes are install on them.  ;Di left them natural and belt sanded the ridges. the whole motor looks kind of industrial, the hat and spacer is semi gloss black, the 14-71 is a dark gray and everything down from that is the natural aluminum. i messed with the rcd idler bracket most of saturday try to get it to work,  by that i mean so that i can get the blower belt on and off fairly easy. i had to have my buddy mopar mike make 2  1/4" and 2  1/2" spacers and i had 2  1/2"  ones to get the idler pulley to line up with the drive pulley and the one on the supercharger. i messed width that thing for hours to get it to work right and still have to have the support bar's slot machined about an inch longer. i also made a small bracket to mount the boost gauge on facing it to the front so i can acturally read the thing.   all the fuel injection lines fit real good.  abrasive came over and was welding on the holes in my aluminum pan all day yesterday. well kiddies that about brings us up to date. 

[jeffmrfixit]

hey bob sounds soo good how abut some pics?

[dart4406]

Still Working On The Ole 1969 Dart...Yanked The Hemi And Getting Ready To Put The 440 Six Pack In...Power By Warrior Engines In Dallastown, PA...Getting Some Help From Bill Stiles Performance Here In York.

[vitamindart]

nice color Cisco our cars could be twins, no progress latley no time or funds me and the kids have been fishing alot

[bOb shingler]

well kiddies today i worked on the belt guard. i managed to get it bent to conform to the new idler set up. i just have to drill a few new holes to bolt it up to the stand off brackets tomorrow.